Brown County program collecting food from trash

Each year Americans throw away the equivalent of 5 billion in uneaten food, according to a recent National Resources Defense Council report. This costs the average family of four about $275 annually.
(Photo: Getty Images)

A pilot program in Brown County is aimed at taking food waste out of landfills and finding other ways to use it.

The program will review the collection and use of waste food for purposes ranging from compost to energy generation through anaerobic digestion. It's estimated food accounts for 20 percent to 30 percent of waste going into landfills.

"We're starting the pilot program to see how the community accepts it and as a way of educating the public about food waste: what you can do with it ... how much is in the waste stream," said Mark Walter, business development manager with the Brown County Port & Resource Recovery Department.

"It's a way of dealing with a big chunk of the waste stream that, right now, is going into the ground."

The startup program, expected to start in September, is looking for residential volunteers to collect their own food waste in certified biodegradable bags and deliver them to one of two county transfer stations.

Other cities around the nation and region — including Madison and Dubuque, Iowa — have initiated similar programs, Walter said.

He expects collection of food will be the biggest hurdle for residents to overcome.

"It's going to be educating people about how they are going to collect it in their own house," Walter said.

"People think of this material as being especially messy and smelly, and really it's just the same as your existing garbage — it's just we're pulling out a piece of what's in your existing garbage."

Paper products with food stains — napkins, paper plates — can be recycled through the program in addition to food. Liquids, plastics, pet and human waste, and materials recycled through other programs, will not be accepted.

The program is expected to save the county money by mitigating some of the long-term costs associated with landfill operations, but the extent of those savings haven't yet been determined.

"It's more of an avoided cost because you have that long-term cost of putting material into a landfill ... and managing it 40 years or so, versus keeping it out and dealing with it right away," Walter said. "We're going to keep pushing (this idea) forward, it's too big a part of the waste stream to not deal with in one manner or another."

County officials will be at a centrally located information booth Saturday at The Farmers Market in downtown Green Bay, explaining the program and recruiting residents to help. The market runs from 7 a.m. to noon on South Washington Street.